No One Lives Outside The Floodplain

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mat 6:20-21 NIV

It’s 6:00am on September 21, 2017, a category 5 hurricane has reduced Puerto Rico to 3rd world conditions, Floridians are still making their way back home to hurricane-torn land, and here in Houston we are recovering from Hurricane Harvey. We will be for years to come. Over 145,000 homes cannot be rebuilt overnight. Only 20% had flood insurance. Why? Because they were in locations that had never flooded. They were “outside the floodplain.” None of us live outside the floodplain.

Do you live too far inland to be concerned about hurricanes? My weather app now also shows earthquakes. In Mexico City, they are still uncovering those who were buried alive by a 7.1 magnitude quake. If this isn’t enough, we have the growing threat of nuclear attack by N. Korea. It feels like we are walking through scary chapters of a history book, not yet written. But, it is.

“What is a mystery to us is history to God” -author unknown. And, He’s been telling us his story and preparing our hearts for heaven from the beginning of time -author known. Will these disasters shake us in to listening?

There’s a reason Jesus instructed us to “store up treasures in heaven”. It’s because he warned us that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Mat 24:35

After every disaster, the focus becomes rebuilding. And, we should. But is it possible that this time we have the courage to rebuilt with eternal perspective? Is it really necessary to make everything exactly like it was, or bigger, or better? Are there things that we will let wash away, leaving us with less distraction on earth and more attention on what lasts forever?